Muhammadu Sanusi II, the Emir of Kano, has said the persistence of child marriage in parts of northern Nigeria is driven by worsening insecurity, poverty, and the government’s failure to provide adequate schools and structured opportunities for young girls after primary education.
Sanusi made the remarks on Wednesday during an interview on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief, where he appeared alongside Nnaemeka Alfred Achebe, the Obi of Onitsha, and Haliru Yahaya Ndanusa, the Emir of Shonga, to discuss culture, education, and social reform.
He argued that public debates often focus on condemning child marriage without addressing the underlying structural factors that push families into such decisions.
According to him, many girls complete primary school at a very young age and are left without pathways for further education or skills development.
“There’s no secondary school, there’s no skill centre, there are no provisions for her life,” the emir said.
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Sanusi explained that in such circumstances, poor families often marry off young girls out of fear rather than cultural preference, especially in communities where insecurity and lack of infrastructure expose girls to risks.
“We’re talking about child marriage, but you go to some parts of the north, there’s a primary school and that’s it,” he said.
“Between 11 and 18, what arrangements have you made for her? The poor man basically finds that she’s 12 or 13; he’s afraid that she can get pregnant on the road, and the next young man that comes, he marries her off. Sometimes these cultures basically reflect poverty.”
The monarch criticised urban perspectives that blame culture while ignoring rural realities, noting that roads are unsafe, schools are far or non-existent, and local government services are weak in many communities.
“It’s easy to blame culture. It’s easy to blame a victim. But the government has not provided the schools,” he said.
Sanusi also cited constitutional provisions guaranteeing every child the right to education, arguing that taking a child out of school should be considered an offence, though enforcement remains absent.
“So if you take a child out of school you’re supposed to have committed an offence,” he said.
“But how many people have ever been arrested for taking a child out of school? None of them.”
He questioned the practicality of enforcing such laws when the state itself has failed to provide adequate schools, particularly in rural areas, and called for massive investment in education and social infrastructure to give young girls alternatives to early marriage.
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